Mats Stigzelius

Mats Stigzelius is a Swedish-heritage, London-based serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor. He earned a Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Manchester, then began his career in strategy consulting at McKinsey & Company before moving into private equity. Around 2010 he shifted into entrepreneurship, opening the London office of Rainmaking, the global innovation and venture-building firm, where he is a Founding Partner and today serves as Partner & CIO / Chief Innovation Officer of Rainmaking's UK Venture Studio.

Rainmaking is best known as the parent of Startupbootcamp, which Stigzelius co-founded — described as the largest early-stage investor outside the US, having helped build and scale 700+ startups, alongside 27 of Rainmaking's own ventures. Over roughly 15 years as a founder he reports building five startups with two exits to date. He is also CEO & Founder of Terra, positioned as one of the world's largest climate-focused accelerator programs, extending his work into net zero and climate tech.

In 2015 Stigzelius co-founded Takumi, a data-driven influencer/performance marketing platform, with Solberg Audunsson, Dom Perks and Gummi Eggertsson, and served as its CEO. Takumi raised a $4M Series A in 2017, grew to work with over 1,300 global brands, and later appointed Marco Ricci as global CEO, with Stigzelius remaining a co-founder. The company has targeted £25m+ revenue and a strategic exit as part of influencer-marketing industry consolidation.

More recently, Stigzelius is Managing GP/Partner at Founder Factor, an investment platform led by Y Combinator alumni that backs the top startups from each YC batch. It uses a "human-machine" selection model pairing proprietary AI prediction with alumni diligence, and draws heavily on European YC alumni and high-net-worth founders as its capital base.

• Invests at seed and early stage, both through structured programs (Startupbootcamp, Terra, Rainmaking Venture Studio) and as an angel/syndicate investor.
• At Founder Factor, the stated aim is to "invest in the top 10% of each YC batch," using a "human-machine selection approach" that pairs proprietary AI prediction with YC-alumni diligence, working alongside Tier 1 VCs.
• Sector-agnostic but active in AI/infrastructure, fintech, climate/net zero, insurtech, biotech/healthcare, robotics and hardware, and marketing technology.
• Values founder pedigree and validation signals — YC acceptance, accelerator traction, and operator-led networks — over any single thesis area.
• Brings an operator's lens: he prefers backing companies where his own experience building and scaling ventures (and exiting) is additive.